08/18/2024
🫴Let's talk about the time I got kicked out of a nursing home for advocating for my patients
🏥A long-term care facility sent people to a local hospital when they were sick.
🩻They would get a swallow study with recs for extreme altered diets when the reports listed ONLY flash pe*******on and mild pharyngeal residue.
No actual physiological issues were listed 🤨
📞In calling the hospital to get clarification on why these diets were so extreme, I was told "well we were just concerned about their respiratory status and wanted to be cautious."
🫁You mean the respiratory status of a person not even on supplemental oxygen who is ambulatory and doesn't get short of breath when they eat?
👄So I requested a repeat swallow study (a FEES specifically) to validate that this ridiculous diet wasn't needed. I was denied by the DON and nurse practitioner that "they just had one."
🗑I explained to them why this previous study was garbage. Still, I was denied.
🤔So I thought, "Fine, let's manage this clinically. I've documented that I tried to get the study, it's not happening, but I did my job." The patient wasn't eating, so we needed to do something.
🙏We did trials and meals. Absolutely no issues. I requested a diet order to return pt to regular diet and thin liquids.
I was denied.😡
😧"It's the safest according to the swallow study" they said. And the patient would just have to "get over it."
📃After scooping my jaw off the floor, I continued to educate and advocate for this patient. I documented everything.
👋And a week later I was told not to return to the facility. Or any other facilities that the nurse practitioner serviced.
😪I cried (in my car of course), but not for myself; for my patient. Despite my best efforts, I had failed them💔
And then I realized, I didn't. This was not my fault
✅️It shouldn't have to be THIS HARD.
✅I shouldn't have to spend WEEKS fighting for what should be common sense treatment approach.
We have the power to impact peoples lives FOREVER. These patients deserve quality evaluations with recs based on FACTS, not FEELINGS.
We must STAND UP as a group and demand respect from our colleagues.
Our patients deserve more.
